July Was Third-Wettest in Northern Illinois; Dry Elsewhere

BY DAN GRANT

Torrential rains that flooded crops in low spots, and along creeks and rivers last month in northern Illinois made a splash in the record book.

July was the third-wettest on record in the northeast and northwest climate divisions in Illinois, according to Jim Angel, state climatologist with the Illinois State Water Survey. The records date back to 1895.

The northwest sector received an average of 7.83 inches, while northeast Illinois averaged 7.55 inches of rain last month. Three of the highest local amounts of rain were recorded during July in Cary (McHenry County), 13.34 inches; Gurnee (Lake County), 13.21 inches; and Chadwick (Carroll County), with 13.15 inches.

“We had one of the wettest Julys ever. It made things difficult,” said Steve Fricke, a farmer from Freeport and president of the Stephenson County Farm Bureau. “There’s still quite a few acres underwater.”

Fricke estimated about 15 percent of crop acres in his county were flooded by the late-July monsoons. A dozen counties in northern Illinois were designated state disaster areas.

Unfortunately, the storms dumped so much rain that many farms and fields still haven’t drained.

Fricke said a large portion of straw on one of his low-lying wheat fields was simply washed away. Meanwhile, he planned to fly an unmanned aerial vehicle over another one of his fields that he still can’t access.

Elsewhere, Andy Larsen, a farmer from Lena who works at Willow Valley Dairy in nearby Kent, said he could barely get to work after a 10-inch rain closed numerous roads in the area the last week of July.

“I knew it was bad,” he said. “But I didn’t figure it would be that bad.”

The situation remains just the opposite in many portions of the southern half of the state, which are rated “abnormally dry,” according to the U.S. Drought Monitor.

Just 0.68 of an inch of rain fell the entire month of July at Quincy Dam.

It’s even drier to the west where a large portion of Iowa is in moderate drought, while the Dakotas remain in the grips of extreme to exceptional drought.

The wild weather variations could be a key to recent reports of pollination problems. Kevin Miller of Effingham County reported findings of numerous blank cobs on what otherwise appeared to be healthy corn plants.

“Early scouters started seeing problems in the corn fields (the last weekend in July),” Miller said. “Around 25 percent of my corn will not make 50 bushels per acre.”

Crop conditions in the state this week were rated 63 percent good to excellent, 26 percent fair and 11 percent poor to very poor for corn; and 66 percent good to excellent, 22 percent fair and 12 percent poor to very poor for soybeans.